Survivors

Friday, June 10, 2011

Lovings and Marriage.

Without question, this is one of the most important legal cases in United States history. Every semester this is brought up in class when discussing race, or social change, or marital equality and each and every time younger students sit agape- amazed that something like interracial marriage was illegal in their parents lifetimes and not some ancient, distant age where pilgrims wore funny hats. 44 years ago these two good and noble people drew a line in the sand and simply by loving and contesting an archaic law taught us how utterly wrong conventional wisdom can be.

While its refreshing that youth culture seems to be disconnected over the recentness of the changes that grant persons to marry of whatever "race" they choose (I hope to marry a human someday, myself) I always find it a tad alarming that most people in a class of freshmen aged students are so oblivious to the fact that less than a generation ago this was a big deal, that segregation was not only social thought, but legally binding institutional discrimination.

I've heard it said a great deal lately, from thoughtful young trailblazers in their own right, that we'll collectively look back at same sex marriage, Proposition 8 and its subsequent banning and conservative pushbacks as wrongheaded and horrific, the same way many look at Loving v. the Supreme Court of Virginia. As a horrible dinosaur from another age. A reminder of how awful and alien the past can be, and in its own way, how recent and transformative the power of love can be. Its because of the Lovings that I'm convinced the right to marry the human of your choosing is worth changing the world for.

Honorable Mention.

"Freedom and justice cannot be parceled out in pieces to suit social convenience. I don't believe you can stand for freedom for one group of people and deny it to others."- Coretta Scott King

"So, what have we learned? We have learned the first lesson. They will always hate us...we must give ordinary humans respect, compliance and understanding. And we must never mistake that for trust." Emma Frost, Astonishing X-Men #1

"I am an invisible man. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids-I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. " Ralph Ellison

"The X-men will continue to fight for a word that fears and hates them...but we will never be victims again." - Cyclops- Uncanny X-Men #1